In a proxy server or gateway, large amounts of analysis and processing may be required to be performed on received data and one or more input-determined outputs generated and sent, e.g., to a backend server or other system, for further processing. Functions such as XML verification, XML validation, encryption/decryption, signature verification, credential verification, identity verification, credential mapping, time stamp verification, content based routing, XML transformations, and data format mapping can be performed on the incoming data by the proxy server or gateway. In such devices, it typically is important to process incoming transactions as quickly as possible. In some network traffic patterns, the same network data may be received by the proxy server more than once. This can create inefficient analysis and processing by the proxy server, for example if the same processing is performed repeatedly on the same input data to determine the same result or output. For example, in a web services or other environment multiple requests to/from multiple servers may be required to complete a single transaction. In some configurations, each such request may include the same security token or credential, e.g., a security assertions markup language (SAML) token associated with the transaction. In a typical prior art proxy server or gateway, each credential received by the proxy server may have to be verified through a computationally expensive verification process, e.g., computing an XML or other signature, even though the same credential has been verified using the same signature in an earlier request associated with the transaction. Therefore, there exists a need to more efficiently handle analysis and processing of like inputs in a proxy server or gateway.